All There Is To It
by CrossGeneration
Summary: Jason seems to be doubting something, hesitant to reach out. Nico is having none of it. (A sort-of sequel after Lucky Coin, mainly because I felt the 'epilogue' was a bit too incomplete. So, enjoy )


**I've been thinking about the ending for Lucky Coin fo time (as you can tell) and I really think that it was such an incomplete ending that I wanted to write another one (despite the last chapter being called an 'epilogue'). So, here it is, and I hope that it clears the air between Nico and Jason a bit more.**

**/**

"Hmm."

"What?" Nico turned to look at his boyfriend. "You only make those noises when you want to say something but decide against it last minute."

Jason raised an eyebrow. "Really? I've never really noticed."

"Do not change the subject on me."

"Well…" the blonde shook his head and sat up on his position on the bed, swinging his legs off the side. "It's nothing. It actually doesn't make any sense." The Italian dropped his pen onto the desk, and stopped working on his morbid history essay. With an inward sigh, he sat next to the blonde who now looked conflicted, mentally fighting himself. Through a rare display of physical affection, Nico explained while holding Jason's hand, intertwining their fingers as if to never let go. "Jason. You have to trust me. I want you to trust me. I…I don't know if I did something, but…"

"Nico, it's not you," the blonde did sigh, "it's me."

"Is something wrong? Did something happen at school?"

Jason shook his head. "I was just wondering if, if you're like…" the shorter teen made a motion for him to go on. "You, like, only agreed to _this_ because you're, like, scared of me?" He shrugged, even hesitant in that one motion with a disheartened look on his face. It was the most that Nico had ever seen his boyfriend and it worried him.

"Jason. Why do you think that I would be scared of you? Like _bullying_?" The blonde, once again, shrugged. "Do you think I would be a person to say yes to _this_ just because I was scared of a passive jock like you?"

"But the first time that we, that I…" He was at a loss of words. The guilt lay heavy on him and his shoulders naturally slouched with the self-acknowledged wrong. It had been nearly a year since the car accident, and Jason had never properly confronted this matter. He couldn't look Nico in the face, hold a steady gaze. Instead, Nico looked strangely at him.

"If I sat on you, and acted all, uh, flirty-ish, how would you respond?"

"Huh?" With a roll of his eyes, the younger, and much more flexible, teen gracefully straddled Jason, grinning at the incredulous gaze in his shocking blue eyes. Nico half-closed his eyes, giving off the desired effect. "If I were like this, what would you do?"

Jason, although he wasn't complaining, put a hand on the shorter teen's chest. "Nico, _what_ are you doing?"

"See? You just stopped me. If you were an aggressive bully, then you wouldn't have."

"But I took advantage of you," Jason continued, "just because I could. I don't deserve you, Nico."

"Then I don't deserve you either," Nico replied. His tone was icy, but there was warmth of anger and of passion, rage on behalf of love. Jason was at a loss of words, once again. But the ice in Nico's eyes turned to water, and yet the steel was still there. "Years back, I nearly killed Percy. And myself. Three suicide attempts. Self-harm," the Italian listed them off the top of his head, all aspects of his bleary eyes and tired lines of his face prominent.

"I let Bianca die. You were the one that pulled me out of that downward spiral of depression; you forgave me and helped me forgive myself. And everyone needs forgiveness. And besides, you saved me from that, that _monster._" Nico shivered, then disguised it as a shrug, but Jason didn't miss it. Nico smiled a bit, even though he didn't feel like it, for Jason's sake. "I think that makes us a bit even."

"B-but-"

"After you left, I-I wasn't able to think straight. I couldn't help but think why? Jason isn't that type of person. You're a good person at heart, I know that for sure," Nico said, "and that's what, that's what made me… J-Jason, I…" His voice cracked as he closed his eyes and envisioned the kind smile, shortly cropped hair, blue eyes. When he opened his eyes again, he found those same blue eyes staring intently at him with an intensity that Nico sometimes wasn't able to handle. But this time, he was.

"I love you, Jason."

Without warning, the blonde pulled his boyfriend into a crushing hug, mainly to hide his broken yet healing expression, and to satisfy the lurch that his heart gave at the three, four words. Thin arms snaked around him and all the more, he held on tighter. Jason hadn't needed a hug this badly since he left his family, left in confusion and hurt.

That had happened fourteen years ago.

The room was silent and still, save for the slight shifts made by the two teens, preferably to move closer to the other in a more comfortable position. Jason wrapped his arms tightly around the shorter teen, enveloping him in a warmth so needed. Their heartbeats pounded as one; their breaths mingled as their lips met, an outlet of suppressed feelings. So content, so happy, so in love.

"Jason," Nico whispered, "I love you, I love you so, so much." His voice became almost as quiet as the silence by the end of his sentence, cheeks deep scarlet as the electric blue eyes bore into him- caring, passionate, intense, tender, warm-hearted, thoughtful, loyal, kind, enamored-

"I love you." In perfect synchronization, they could get lost in each other for so long, stare into each other's eyes for an infinite amount of time, stay with each other until eternity. One sentence, three words, a common emotion.

Love, and that was all they needed.

Love, made complete within each other.

Love, that's all there is to it.

Love.


End file.
